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“When’s Kate due?” my friend in Sydney keeps asking me. It must be soon judging by the number of campaigns that are already launching in readiness for the new Prince or Princess of Cambridge’s arrival.

First there was Roberts Bakery, and the UK’s most expensive loaf of bread priced at £30 loaf of pop, and now Bassetts Jelly Babies have taken out an advert in today’s Metro newspaper.

Are you thinking what I’m thinking? It’s a very weak ad and looks rushed, especially when there’s so many puns the team could’ve played on – baby-to-baby. It leaves me questioning if marketing even got their PR team involved to help develop an idea that gives the brand a better ROI than just an eighth of a page. I mean, it’s not even obvious what these babies are doing. Are they saluting or meant to be the Queen’s soldiers or neither?

You should know by now that I’m not shy to throw in my 2p worth. Here it is:

If I was in that brainstorm I would’ve suggested waiting until the baby was born (risky I know because it’ll be a saturated market but this idea is so worth it) and creating a one-off series of life size jelly babies, weighing exactly the same as the new arrival – perhaps throw in a few defining features too. Keep one and arrange a photo-call with Wills and Kate look-a-likes, before sending the rest to the Royal Family to enjoy. One could also be given away in a national competition.

They say that you’ve got to evolve to keep up with the times and Hasbro’s classic board game, Monopoly, is doing just that to stay current.

Earlier this year, the iron was kicked out of the game and replaced with a cat after Facebook fans voted it in with almost a third of the vote.

And back in 2011, the board game was updated with all new properties to reflect the most expensive areas in London. As a result, purple Mayfair was booted out and Kensington set up shop. After all, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were due to move into the neighbourhood.

But today Mayfair-based hotel Flemings decided to snub the royal residents by launching a campaign to get ‘Mayfair back in the game’.

The launch was marked by a symbolic boot outside the hotel as four Uncle Pennybags (aka Mr Monopoly) encouraged residents and game fanatics to sign a petition to get Mayfair back on the board.

This is a great PR stunt not only for the hotel, but also for the surrounding local businesses backing the campaign. On the one hand, it’s a shame that the news hook is almost two years out of date. But the fact that no one else has challenged Monopoly in all this time makes it right that Flemings should pass ‘go’ and collect some PR points for such a fun campaign.